Little-known Maute militants becoming formidable force in Philippines

MANILA, May 24 (Reuters) - A tactically smart, social media savvy group eager to align with Islamic State has emerged from the glut of bandit and separatist groups in the southern Philippines, and so far has proved to be more than a match for the military.

Maute guerrillas seized large parts of Marawi, a predominantly Muslim city in the Mindanao region, on Tuesday after a botched raid by security forces on a hideout of the group.

Fighting abated on Wednesday, but residents said fighters were in control of the city, 1,400 km (870 miles) south of the capital Manila. They allowed many civilians to leave, although they had taken a Catholic priest hostage.

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Duterte was born on March 28, 1945 in Maasin, Southern Leyte, Philippines.

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Duterte became the mayor of Davao City in 1988, where he earned the nickname “The Punisher.” He served as mayor for 20 years, non-consecutively.

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Duterte comes from a family of politicians. His father, Vicente Duterte, was the governor of unified Davao and a member of President Ferdinand Marcos' cabinet. His daughter, Sara Duterte, is currently the mayor of Davao City.

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Rodrigo Duterte was elected the 16th president of the Philippines in May 2016.

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Duterte once compared himself to Adolf Hitler, saying he would kill millions of drug addicts.

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Duterte has led a violent anti-drug crackdown, and more than 7,000 have reportedly been killed since he has taken office.

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Duterte called President Barack Obama a “son of a wh**e.” He made the comments after Obama brought up concerns about human rights violations in 2016. Duterte later apologized for the comment.

Duterte cursed Pope Francis over traffic that was generated by his visit.

"We were affected by the traffic," Duterte said. "It took us five hours. I asked why, they said it was closed. I asked who is coming. They answered, the Pope. I wanted to call him: 'Pope, son of a wh**e, go home. Do not visit us again'."

He later apologized.

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Duterte came under fire in April 2016 after he made a joke about a missionary who was gang raped and murdered during a prison riot in 1989. “But she was so beautiful,” Duterte said. “I thought the mayor should have been first.”

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A witness testified in Sept. 2016, claiming he was a member of Duterte's alleged "Davao Death Squad," and that the Filipino president gave orders to kill drug dealers, drug users and others who may violate the law.

President Rodrigo Duterte has imposed martial law across Mindanao, saying he would use tough measures to prevent a "contamination" by Islamist extremists in the region, which comprises one-third of the sprawling, Catholic-majority Philippines.

"The Philippines is facing a dangerous group with more solid international connections," security expert Rommel Banlaoi said of the Maute.

"This will be a game-changer in the fight against Islamist extremism, we haven't seen anything like this before."

The Philippines has long fought a simmering Islamic insurgency in Mindanao, but it has signed peace deals with some of the main militant groups and contained others. The region is also home to Marxist guerrillas as well as bandit gangs.

Based in Lanao del Sur, the Mindanao province which includes Marawi, the Maute surfaced around 2013 with a bombing of a nightclub in Cagayan de Oro, a mainly Christian city in a neighboring province, which killed six people.

The little-known group has raised its profile since Duterte took office 11 months ago, most notably with a September 2016 bombing of a street market in the president's hometown of Davao City. Fourteen people were killed and dozens wounded.

It was blamed for a foiled bomb attempt near the United States embassy in Manila in November.

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The group is named after its leaders, the Maute brothers, both Filipinos with extensive ties to the Middle East, according to the military.

Egypt-educated Omarkhayan Romato Maute married an Indonesian, the daughter of a conservative Islamic cleric, while his brother Abdullah studied in Jordan and has links to Arab extremists. A third brother Hashim was arrested but escaped from a Marawi jail last year.

Last year, the group sought recognition from the Islamic State, pledging allegiance and calling itself as the IS-Ranao.

The Maute brothers are cousins of the second wife of Alim Abdulaziz Mimbantas, a leader of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who is now dead. The government signed a peace deal with the MILF in 2014.

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Military intelligence said the Maute brothers also had links to two of the region's most dangerous militants - Indonesian Ustadz Sanusi and Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan. Both were killed by Philippine security forces, Sanusi in 2012 and bin Hir in 2015.

In an October 2016 report, regional security expert Sidney Jones said the Maute "has the smartest, best-educated and most sophisticated members of all of the pro-ISIS groups in the Philippines."

Jones said the Maute group was sophisticated in its use of social media and was able to attract students and teachers from the Mindanao State University in Marawi.

The Philippines had until this year denied it was home to groups with Islamic State ties. In February, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told Reuters there was credible intelligence showing Islamic State was providing funds and sounding out the Philippines as a base.

The military has not had much success in battles with Maute fighters, despite far greater numbers and use of planes, attack helicopters and artillery.

"The Mautes have shown an ability to absorb what would seem to be major losses in clashes with the police and military, suggesting that their organization is larger and better organized that perhaps they have been given credit for," Jones said in the report.

Military officials say it is not possible to estimate the number of Maute fighters - some reports have put the number of at over 100, but others say there could be about 1,000.

What is troubling the security apparatus is that radical elements of another Islamic State-linked group, Abu Sayyaf, appear to be collaborating with Maute, far from its island strongholds of Basilan, Jolo and Tawi Tawi, all off Mindanao.

The military says Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group notorious for kidnappings and piracy, sought an alliance with the Maute brothers and was wounded in air strikes in January in Lanao del Sur.

Hapilon, who is also wanted by the United States, was the target of Tuesday's attempted raid in Marawi, but was not captured. (Editing by Martin Petty and Raju Gopalakrishnan)